Two-time world champion added to By Terry Kolesar, Editor
ing has hired two-time world champion Al Hackner of Tunder Bay, Ontario, as the final member of its national coach- ing staff. Hackner, 58, joins Scott Baird (Bemidji, Minn.) as a national team coach in addition to Project 2018 national coaches John Benton (St. Michael, Minn.) and Phill Drobnick (Eveleth, Minn.), un- der the direction of High Performance Director Derek Brown. Hackner, who began curling at age 13,
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ſter an extensive search pro- cess by the High Performance Advisory Group, USA Curl-
SportsSign up adds extra tools for athletes
By Dawn Leurquin, USA Curling Event Services Manager A new feature within the Sports Signup online registration system
is the “Team Wall.” It is a place where team members and coaches can communicate through real-time posts. Team members can communi- cate on the wall without exchanging contact information, dealing with long strings of email communications, or having to place telephone calls. In addition, you can communicate with the entire team at once. It’s similar to Facebook but only rostered team members will have ac- cess to posts. To use this new feature, log in to your SSU account, click on your
Hackner
skipped his Northern Ontario team to Ca- nadian and world championship titles in 1982 and 1985. He also was run- ner-up at the 2007 World Senior Curling Championships and is a member of the Canadian Curling Association’s Hall of Fame. In the 10th end of the 1985 Canadian National Championships final, Hackner played a double takeout for two points to tie the game, which some consider to be one of the greatest shots in Canadian curling history. He went on to win in the extra end and then reclaimed the world title. “We are delighted to have someone with Al’s experience and knowledge
of the game working with our high performance teams, and I am sure he will be a fantastic asset to our program,” Brown said of Hackner’s hiring. n
Front-end players sought for research study
Dr. John Coumbe-Lilley from the Department of Kinesiology and Nutri-
tion, University of Illinois at Chicago, is conducting an exploratory study investigating the affects of mental skills training strategies on front-end curling performance. Eligible participants must be between the ages of 18-64 years old. All
participants must have five years of experience and be playing front end in the 2012-13 competitive season. Te study involves completing a series of throws, and completing a four-
hour mental skills package followed by competing in a bonspiel and assess- ing the usefulness of the training package. Te primary research locations will be one of the following sites: May-
field Curling Club in South Euclid, Ohio, or the Madison Curling Club in McFarland, Wis. For more information, please contact Dr. Coumbe-Lilley at 312-996-0152 or send an email to jcoumb1@uic.edu. n
rostered team name link (remember that to be rostered, your entry must be complete. Rostering is done manually at the national office). Ten click on team wall under the options tab. Everyone on the team will be sent a notification of the initial post; aſter that, only the person who started the posts will receive notifications of new posts. Tere is currently no fee associated with using this particular SSU feature. Pho- tos cannot be posted but website addresses can easily be added. If any teams discover a handy use for this particular feature, please share it with us by sending a note to entries@usacurl.org so we can share it with your fellow curlers, too. Clubs can use the Sports Signup system for bonspiels and leagues
too. Te costs are competitive and the information flow is easy to work with. If you’d like more information, send a note to entries@usacurl. org to receive contact information from the SSU team. n